Spotify Wants Family Plan Members to Share Their Location Data 'From Time to Time'

[MacRumors]

Spotify will require family plan members to provide their location data "from time to time" to prove they're all living under the same roof, in an effort to curb subscribers who abuse the offer.

The Spotify Premium Family Plan has been hugely popular among users of the music streaming service, since it offers families up to six accounts under one plan for a single price of $14.99 a month, as does Apple Music's equivalent.

It's no secret that friends sometimes gang up together to share the spoils of subscribing to Spotify's cheaper family plan, even though they don't live together. If six people share a plan then the cost of Spotify Premium works out at $2.50 per person.

The streaming service officially requires that fellow family plan members live in the same household, but Spotify has historically been fairly lax about checking up on where people live, so it's easy to see the appeal.

However, according to the streaming service's terms and conditions, updated in August, family plan users will be expected to share location data "from time to time" in order to prove that everyone on the plan is in fact living in the same residence.

First spotted by CNET, the new requirement does raise privacy concerns, but Spotify has moved to allay those fears by issuing the following statement:

"The location data that is collected during Premium Family account creation is only used by Spotify for that purpose.... once verification of a family member's home address is completed, we do not store their location data or track their location at any time. This data is encrypted and can be edited by the plan owner as needed."

It's not clear how aggressive Spotify will be in checking user's locations, but it has tested the policy before - though it ended shortly afterward after complaints of privacy violations.

@Spotify Why do you need my GPS location to continue offering me a "Premium discount"? I pay for the family plan and it should not matter where my family lives. Will you cancel my account if my family gets too far from each other? #wtf #fail pic.twitter.com/HauQtHXSUA - suck (@unaligned) September 18, 2018

Regardless, existing family plan subscribers who don't like the change have up to 30 days to cancel their subscription after the new terms come into effect. Depending where they are though, subscribers may not have as much time as they think. The updated family plan terms rolled out first in Ireland on August 19 and in the U.S. on September 5.

Article Link: Spotify Wants Family Plan Members to Share Their Location Data 'From Time to Time'

 

[Heineken]

oh my god ...

 

[jmonte2016]

Reminds me when I signed up Months ago and kept getting emails asking to verify my address, I only like Spotify for their user Generated Playlists that you can easily find, if only Apple Music had that...

 

[jimothyGator]

The location data that is collected during Premium Family account creation is only used by Spotify for that purpose.... once verification of a family member's home address is completed, we do not store their location data or track their location at any time. This data is encrypted and can be edited by the plan owner as needed.

This is unacceptable. An absolute outrage. How could they let such a thing stand?

These data are encrypted.

 

[4jasontv]

Great, but they need to be more transparent than “time to time”.

Are students not part of the family? When I was in high school I went over a year without going home.
What about dads that want to offer their kids Spotify but they live with their mom?
What about people with multiple home?

I have friends who drive trucks for a living. They literally live in their two trucks and use different family addresses to get mail.

I get what they want to do but they need to be more specific about what this means to the experience. Do you get a pop up shutting off music until you go “home” or does it warn you that you have X days to go home? Does it use GPS, cause that can suck in some cities.

Does anyone know if it uses your mailing address or physical address? Cause my mailing address is the USPS downtown.

 

[Narcaz]

I hope they get a serious gdpr fine (art. 5 data minimisation) for this move. Absolutely not necessary to track devices from all family members to get rid of freeloaders. They could easily create some paid features (e.g. premium podcasts) which use the same shared credit card. This would certainly reduce the number of people, who use an empty slot in a family membership.

 

[Moi Ici]

Actually they changed the above request and now will ask now and again for the home address as given by the main account holder.

 

[rikscha]

Great, but they need to be more transparent than “time to time”.

Are students not part of the family? When I was in high school I went over a year without going home.
What about dads that want to offer their kids Spotify but they live with their mom?
What about people with multiple home?

I have friends who drive trucks for a living. They literally live in their two trucks and use different family addresses to get mail.

I get what they want to do but they need to be more specific about what this means to the experience. Do you get a pop up shutting off music until you go “home” or does it warn you that you have X days to go home? Does it use GPS, cause that can suck in some cities.

Does anyone know if it uses your mailing address or physical address? Cause my mailing address is the USPS downtown.

It’s in their t and cs, you have to live under one roof which makes perfect sense.

 

[Remy149]

Great, but they need to be more transparent than “time to time”.

Are students not part of the family? When I was in high school I went over a year without going home.
What about dads that want to offer their kids Spotify but they live with their mom?
What about people with multiple home?

I have friends who drive trucks for a living. They literally live in their two trucks and use different family addresses to get mail.

I get what they want to do but they need to be more specific about what this means to the experience. Do you get a pop up shutting off music until you go “home” or does it warn you that you have X days to go home? Does it use GPS, cause that can suck in some cities.

Does anyone know if it uses your mailing address or physical address? Cause my mailing address is the USPS downtown.

They say students who don’t live at home are required to get the discounted student subscription

 

[Json81]

Actually they changed the above request and now will ask now and again for the home address as given by the main account holder.

I logged in yesterday and they wanted me to add my address to continue using family plan.
Strange, it should already be there but ok, I thought.
Whatever idiot coding they have for it it can't find my address and wants me to pick something else nearby...

 

[aajeevlin]

but Spotify has historically been fairly lax about checking up on where people live, so it's easy to see the appeal.

Haha, no they are not. Even as far back as 10 months ago Spotify started to require some verification.

Now Netflix. That are fairly lax...

 

[macaddict06]

Stupid for a number if scenarios:

College kids away at school.

Parents who use Spotify at their offices.

Families on VACATION.

The list goes on.

Also, what about a bunch of unrelated roommates who live together? This would seem to violate their terms yet the system they designed isn’t effective against them. Totally stupid.

 

[aajeevlin]

Haha, no they are not. Even as far back as 10 months ago Spotify started to require some verification.

Now Netflix. That are fairly lax...

I will cancel Spotify if this gets to be the case. There are too many music service for Spotify to do things like this.

 

[Abazigal]

Looks like Netflix is getting desperate for cash...

 

[4jasontv]

They say students who don’t live at home are required to get the discounted student subscription

I think it’s pretty crappy to treat minors differently.
[doublepost=1568375974][/doublepost]

It’s in their t and cs, you have to live under one roof which makes perfect sense.

Except, of course, for all the examples where it doesn’t.

 

[Bin Cook]

Not great. I’ve long held onto Spotify as opposed to the train wreck of Apple Music as Apple shouldn’t be rewarded for mediocrity.

But this is a bit off and I’ve had some bad customer service experiences recently (not billing, trying to report broken tracks and the CS rep is like “use another service if you have a problem”.

 

[tomjleeds]

How anyone can legitimately get wound up about this is beyond me. It's very clear what the terms are when you sign up.

 

[MacUser09425]

How anyone can legitimately get wound up about this is beyond me. It's very clear what the terms are when you sign up.

Agree. A company has every right to attempt to limit piracy.

 

[Johnny Steps]

What a petty practice. Will a traditional family be mandatory too?

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Is it not normal for people to listen while driving or at work or at the house of a friend or family member, and kind of uncommon to actually listen at their own house? Seems difficult for Spotify to determine where you live from your location...

 

[Porco]

The principle is offensive and the practice seems pretty ineffective.

 

[lunarworks]

Is Spotify still bleeding cash?

 

[technole]

oh my god ...

Reading the thread of people being mad they are targeted because of abusing the package.

 

[5105973]

Reading the thread of people being mad they are targeted because of abusing the package.

Not really. We only use Spotify on the Amazon Echos and that’s in the kitchen and rec room. But I can see the issues this will cause for people.

 

[macjunk(ie)]

Not saying that this is wrong but I wonder how much Spotify saves because of this and hope it is worth it for them.

If people end up cancelling due to this reason, then Spotify loses. There are alternatives to Spotify